Don't think I've ever been so wet on holiday in the UK........2 weeks of it in the Yorkshire Dales. A cool, wet, windy summer so far 😡

Originally Posted by: Crepuscular Ray 

Hope the unwanted rain we had all day 2 days ago is the last one for a long while.  We badly need more dry weather and meanwhile spent today and yesterday correcting my indoor temperatures back to 23-25C as it was dropped very low 20C during the cold rainy day.  34-35c in the conservatory today and yesterday help to restore my house warmth now feel very comfortable warm. 

Originally Posted by: Jiries 

I take it you don't have a garden?

Originally Posted by: Bertwhistle 

I've been moaning about my poor UK holiday weather this June in Yorkshire and look on with jealousy at the SE contingent enjoying 20 C+ and mostly dry.

I'm wondering weather to try some walking in the SE next summer. I'm thinking primarily the South Downs, High Weald, Kent, Surrey Hills etc.

Any ideas where to base ourselves, prefer attractive smaller towns and villages on the waymarked long distant paths. Thank you

Originally Posted by: Crepuscular Ray 

Alfriston would make a nice base; Firle Beacon to the West leading on to Ditchling Beacon / Devils Dyke and Brighton etc. Seven Sisters / Beachy head to the East leading down to Eastbourne and through to Hastings and the fossil beds at Pett then onwards to historic Rye and Camber (avoid during school hols!) then on to the vast gravel headland of Dungeness and its associated unique habitats and general weirdness.

I live just up the road to the North and its amazing how much more sun they get along that stretch of the coast.

Originally Posted by: MRazzell 

I've been moaning about my poor UK holiday weather this June in Yorkshire and look on with jealousy at the SE contingent enjoying 20 C+ and mostly dry.

I'm wondering weather to try some walking in the SE next summer. I'm thinking primarily the South Downs, High Weald, Kent, Surrey Hills etc.

Any ideas where to base ourselves, prefer attractive smaller towns and villages on the waymarked long distant paths. Thank you

Originally Posted by: Crepuscular Ray 

I'm surprised I had to search for this thread given the godforsaken boring weather we are getting. Day after day of sun and unbearable heat. I have managed to get a differential of 6C downstairs to outside now (28C inside 34C outside today). But you just can't go outside between 10.00am and 7.00pm because it is too hot to do anything without getting soaked in sweat or collapsing from heat exhaustion., as a friend of mine did in the last spell after stupidly playing golf. Tonight I am leaving the upstairs doors open to see if the bedroom aircon can cause the cooler air to drift down the stairs to the ground floor. The recovery from the drought for a few days at the start of June is now a distant memory and still no sign of rain. '76 was like this but I was young then and could take it and do stuff to enjoy it. I'm happy for those that can cope if they like heat but apart from the records what's the point to 34C as opposed to 27C?

Originally Posted by: fairweather 

This hot spell has finally convinced me to get proper aircon installed - it's quite frankly unpleasant to sit indoors sweating my balls off each day, or get scorched outside and still sweat my balls off. This morning shows it well: a uniform 25C downstairs, 27C upstairs, and my portable aircon was on the verge of conking out last night due to the heat (the compressor was very loud) - I normally have it in the spare room due to the noise it makes, piping the cold air into my room through a hose, but it was 33C in that back bedroom and the aircon's manual says it can only work up to 32C. Today I'll have to have the aircon in the same room, so not much sleep tonight either.

I know Matty has always been a big fan of the heat, but I consider it cheating if you then have aircon at home (as he does). If you profess to enjoy the heat, raw-dog it man, as the cool kids would say! Embrace that buildup of heat, enjoy the feeling of the mattress you're lying on radiating heat into you, make the most of the warm walls and warm floors in your home...

I really feel for those down here who don't have aircon and I expect sales to go nuts well into the autumn. I'm going to get mine installed late winter or early spring, I think, hopefully when it's least busy and prices and availability are better. 

Incidentally 76 wasn't like this - it was cooler, at least here. It only hit 30 four times on Sheppey during that whole summer, the highest temperature was 32, and at night, importantly, it still got into the mid or even low teens, something which is seemingly impossible these days. Dewpoints were several degrees lower too, and that's something seldom mentioned in heatwave discussions: dryer air cools more, it cools you more, and it makes the whole thing feel less oppressive. These high teens/low 20s dewpoints we're having now are utterly sapping.

Normally the sea breeze would save us here (as it did in both 2022 and 2003, which had temperatures in the high 30s followed by a 10-degree cooling as the see breeze arrived in the afternoon), but this year? Nothing. We now have GFS and MetO showing temperatures in the 30s here this afternoon with winds off the sea... hopeless!

And the worst bit? We're not even halfway through this poxy summer yet. Unbelievable, frankly.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

As one ages one's response to hot weather changes. Health issues affect this too. When we first hit 31C here we had a phone conversation with a cousin who lines in Ostia, near Rome. They had just hit 41C! She, like us, is in the the 75-85 age bracket. Thankfully she has one air conditioned room. She has two kids who keep an eye on her.  I think her case is the way many here will have to go - one properly air conditioned room. That strikes a survivable balance between comfort and sensible energy use.

You will laugh - but our 3 USB fans are making a real difference - one plugged into the smart TV in the living room, one in the kitchen, plugged into the radio, and one here in the computer room. 😂 Another BIG plus is a skylight we can open to release convected heat upstairs. Left open all night, this ensures upstairs rooms are a tolerable temperature. 

Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons 

I've a fan which has been sucking in the cool sic air into the office for the past hour or so. Makes a notable difference. But yesterday, by about 2pm it was time to close up and shut shop. An issue with air con is maintaining the filters. Skip it and you'll probably get sore throats or some other sickness from the fungus-covered filters.

https://theconversation.com/can-air-conditioning-really-make-you-sick-a-microbiologist-explains-260648 

Originally Posted by: NMA 

This hot spell has finally convinced me to get proper aircon installed - it's quite frankly unpleasant to sit indoors sweating my balls off each day, or get scorched outside and still sweat my balls off. This morning shows it well: a uniform 25C downstairs, 27C upstairs, and my portable aircon was on the verge of conking out last night due to the heat (the compressor was very loud) - I normally have it in the spare room due to the noise it makes, piping the cold air into my room through a hose, but it was 33C in that back bedroom and the aircon's manual says it can only work up to 32C. Today I'll have to have the aircon in the same room, so not much sleep tonight either.

I know Matty has always been a big fan of the heat, but I consider it cheating if you then have aircon at home (as he does). If you profess to enjoy the heat, raw-dog it man, as the cool kids would say! Embrace that buildup of heat, enjoy the feeling of the mattress you're lying on radiating heat into you, make the most of the warm walls and warm floors in your home...

I really feel for those down here who don't have aircon and I expect sales to go nuts well into the autumn. I'm going to get mine installed late winter or early spring, I think, hopefully when it's least busy and prices and availability are better. 

Incidentally 76 wasn't like this - it was cooler, at least here. It only hit 30 four times on Sheppey during that whole summer, the highest temperature was 32, and at night, importantly, it still got into the mid or even low teens, something which is seemingly impossible these days. Dewpoints were several degrees lower too, and that's something seldom mentioned in heatwave discussions: dryer air cools more, it cools you more, and it makes the whole thing feel less oppressive. These high teens/low 20s dewpoints we're having now are utterly sapping.

Normally the sea breeze would save us here (as it did in both 2022 and 2003, which had temperatures in the high 30s followed by a 10-degree cooling as the see breeze arrived in the afternoon), but this year? Nothing. We now have GFS and MetO showing temperatures in the 30s here this afternoon with winds off the sea... hopeless!

And the worst bit? We're not even halfway through this poxy summer yet. Unbelievable, frankly.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

Yes, I suspect you're right in terms of us (at least in the south/SE) ending up with a "cool room" - the equivalent of the old days before central heating, I guess, when there might be a fire kept going in one room while the others were left to freeze. Perhaps in due course we'll see American/hotel-style "central air", where there are ducts and grilles in each room... something for newbuilds, perhaps, as the cost of retrofitting such a system would be many tens of thousands. 

As for fans, I can imagine your house dotted with them - little breezes wherever you go!

My (pedestal) fan yesterday made it feel pretty warm. It was 28C in my living room yesterday evening (30 outside, so the windows were closed, curtains drawn) and the fan made it feel like a hair dryer! I do use one each morning at times like this, though; my living room is on the north side of the house, running from west to east, with a 70s concrete patio on the eastern side. On days like this I open the french windows, pop the fan on the patio, then have it blowing air through the living room (and out the window on the western side)... the snag is when it's 18C outside there's only so much it can do, and I note even after an hour and a half it's still 23C in the living room. 

EDIT: As for the skylight, that sounds like a great idea - they have a similar system in the newbuilds at the school where I worked, I notice, and theirs open automatically when it gets to a certain temperature. Mind you, they were always complaining about how hot it got in there in the summer...

Originally Posted by: Retron 

My home office also faces west so it's pleasant in the morning when I open the windows. It has a door into the kitchen extension and internal doors into the front sitting room. With the front windows and kitchen bifolds open there is usually a breeze flowing through. Very still today though and felt hotter than yesterday when I strolled down the garden. I put the big garden brolly up on the deck outside the window which keeps the direct sun off until late afternoon

I also don't struggle to sleep in this weather. I get up at half 5 to take the dog out before it's too hot for her and we sit out on the deck in the evening until late so by the time I get to bed at half 11 or so I'm tired enough to go straight to sleep

These conditions, although becoming much more common in recent years, are something to be enjoyed for me as there is so much of the year to be stuck indoors looking at gloomy skies. I don't care how hot it is, I'd far rather be sat at home working than wasting the best part of 3 hours a day door to door travelling to and from the office. I've had more than enough years of that. The City of London concrete jungle in this type of weather is particularly unpleasant with the heat radiating out of roads and buildings. Much happier dealing with the heat here with the window open, hearing birds calling and the splashing of water in the pond  and watching butterflies, dragonflies and the occasional humming bird hawk moth and hornet going about their business. Much more civilised 

Originally Posted by: Mildly Disappointed 

My home office also faces west so it's pleasant in the morning when I open the windows. It has a door into the kitchen extension and internal doors into the front sitting room. With the front windows and kitchen bifolds open there is usually a breeze flowing through. Very still today though and felt hotter than yesterday when I strolled down the garden. I put the big garden brolly up on the deck outside the window which keeps the direct sun off until late afternoon

I also don't struggle to sleep in this weather. I get up at half 5 to take the dog out before it's too hot for her and we sit out on the deck in the evening until late so by the time I get to bed at half 11 or so I'm tired enough to go straight to sleep

These conditions, although becoming much more common in recent years, are something to be enjoyed for me as there is so much of the year to be stuck indoors looking at gloomy skies. I don't care how hot it is, I'd far rather be sat at home working than wasting the best part of 3 hours a day door to door travelling to and from the office. I've had more than enough years of that. The City of London concrete jungle in this type of weather is particularly unpleasant with the heat radiating out of roads and buildings. Much happier dealing with the heat here with the window open, hearing birds calling and the splashing of water in the pond  and watching butterflies, dragonflies and the occasional humming bird hawk moth and hornet going about their business. Much more civilised 

Originally Posted by: Mildly Disappointed 

I don't care how hot it is, I'd far rather be sat at home working than wasting the best part of 3 hours a day door to door travelling to and from the office. I've had more than enough years of that. The City of London concrete jungle in this type of weather is particularly unpleasant with the heat radiating out of roads and buildings. Much happier dealing with the heat here with the window open, hearing birds calling and the splashing of water in the pond  and watching butterflies, dragonflies and the occasional humming bird hawk moth and hornet going about their business. Much more civilised 

Originally Posted by: Mildly Disappointed 

You love cold and snow. Do you have central heating?

Originally Posted by: Matty H